Corporate greed must come to an end…now!

Enough is enough!

Isn’t it clear to everyone that every action has a consequence. Good or bad!

Isn’t it further clear that if we continue to operate out of greed and continue to ignore the right way, the way of truth and honor, if we continue to believe its all about profit and we have no responsibility for the consequences or for each other…..our  system will eventually crash and burn…and we are seeing this happen right before our eyes…

What are we going to do about this?

I recently saw the current movie about the man who invented variable speed windshield wipers and the corporate giant auto manufacturer who was interested in purchasing this invention, after reviewing the invention, they simply copied it, stole it, instead of entering into a fair deal with the inventor.  Believing their financial strength was capable of crushing the real inventor, they preferred to steal it.

The inventor entered into a very long legal battle and ultimately won…The courts enforced the inventors rights. Hallelujah…There is some hope, our court and justice system supported right over wrong and the individual prevailed, won over the corporate giant.

The real issue is however that the corporate giant had the audacity to actually believe it could decide to steal the invention in the first place and then get away with it. That the man eventually won in the courts is a great ending to an awful story but not the real issue.

How corrupt can our system be if behind closed corporate board room doors it can be decided that it is ok to steal the mans invention and believe the corporate giant could out spend the man and win because of financial strength, and that this is somehow acceptable behavior? This is wrong and they knew they were doing wrong, but did it anyways. This is the issue. This is the problem and we cannot legislate this issue away, it must come from within each one of us. Do we do the right thing or do we lie, cheat, and steal so we can make a few more dollars.

I am naively aghast. I am embarrassed for our corporate leaders as I cannot even imagine the debate, where the board or the officers with responsibility and authority decided stealing was the way to go. Believing that their size and strength would prevail and they could crush the little man, outspend him and out last him and that this was somehow ok. I can imagine the discussion and am amazed it occurred.

The same with Enron, blatant thievery. It happens all over the corporate world. How about the current meltdown of the financial industry based in large part on the sub-prime  debacle. Yes profit and the bottom line is a highly respected objective and very important, a driving force certainly,  but is their no requirement for any level of morality in corporate decision making, is there not a need to do the right thing which may result in less profit but doing the right thing could be the only way our system will survive…it may be the only way our system will prosper? It may be the only way our society can maintain itself? Have we forgotten what we learned as children…right from wrong?

Of course now we have the sub-prime banking burn out. An entire financial industry crumbling because our leaders were so greedy they forgot the basic tenants of business lending and made tens of thousands, no make that millions of bad loans. Knowingly bad.

We all know what is right from wrong, there is no excuse to do the wrong thing in the name of greater profitability and this is the issue.

Until we come to grips with this issue, no legislation, no bail out plan, will work and no cycle will reverse itself to resolve our current financial crisis as these issues are a direct result of greed and a failure to recognize that doing the right thing is basic and required for any system to work. Once corruption enters and greed controls there is no system that can survive for long.

We cannot legislate this, we must all remember what we know to be true,  lying, cheating, and sealing does not work….excessive greed will kill us all, as if we do not know this.

We all drink the same water, breathe the same air and eat the same food, yet our corporate giants believe that in the name of profit we can pollute, adulterate and poison ourselves… for a few pennies more of profitability.

Here is the rub, small business can operate with ethics and do. Small business owners can make ethical decisions every day, and we do. We can bring change to our system from the bottom up. Small business represents 70% of our gross national productivity.  It represents over 70% of our jobs. Small business is America, large business simply gets more of the headlines.

If we do the right thing at our small business level….we will eventually prevail. We will restore morality into our society and world. What choice do we have?

Actually small business has been doing the right thing the right way all over America, for a very long time.

It is really only our leadership, both corporate and political who are so corrupt and driven by greed, that they have caused us deep and difficult issues to deal with and as they self destruct, small business will continue to stay on the path and lead the way acting appropriately doing the right thing. Hopefully they will not tip the bat, although we are listing dangerously now.

I believe this.

There is hope, but it will require the voices and actions of the small business world to scream loud enough for everyone at the top, the big and fat cats to hear…. ‘Stop! Think! Listen! Change your  ways! ….and do what your mother taught you to do as children long ago….the right thng’.